The present disclosure relates to surgical tools. More particularly, it relates to hand held retractor instruments for use in surgical procedures, for example in retracting tissue, organs, etc.
With many surgical procedures, tissue at or leading to the intended surgical site must be retracted or moved, providing a clear and/or stabilized view of the operating field. Various hand held surgical tools (commonly referred to as a retractor) have been developed for accomplishing these purposes. Retractors generally include a handle and a blade. The blade extends from the handle at an approximately 90 degree angle, and is typically sized and shaped for a particular procedure (e.g., a longer and/or wider blade may be appropriate for retracting tissue deep inside a body of the patient, whereas a shorter and/or narrower blade may be more appropriate for retracting skin at an incision). So as to meet the needs of various surgical procedures, a surgical team normally must have a large number of differently-configured retractors available.
Although the retraction of tissue with a retractor can provide a more direct field of vision to the intended surgical site, additional illumination is oftentimes required. In some instances, the surgeon may use a separate light source such as a head-mounted light or other light source located in the surgical suite. More recently, lighted retractors have been suggested with which a fiber optic light guide is loaded to the retractor body itself. With this approach, light from the fiber optic light guide can be emitted more directly over and along a face of the blade, thus more directly illuminating the surgical site. While beneficial, fiber optic light guides are relatively expensive and may negatively affect a surgeon's ability to freely move his or her hands. Further, light may not be provided at a location desired by the user, and power requirement may be excessive.